USC gives Steve Sarkisian chance to bring Tim Drevno back home with him

Offensive line coach Tim Drevno will leave the San Francisco 49ers, after spending the past 10 seasons with Jim Harbaugh at Stanford and in the NFL, and join friend Steve Sarkisian’s coaching staff at USC. (Photo by The Associated Press)

New USC football coach Steve Sarkisian and some of his recently assembled coaching staff met with the media Tuesday, with two conspicuous absences.

One was an obvious no-show, as defensive line coach Bo Davis followed his heart back to Alabama and former boss Nick Saban on Monday. It was a decision motivated by a desire to be closer to family and one Sarkisian insists he supported, even though it sends him scurrying to hire a replacement.

The other absentee was new offensive line coach Tim Drevno, who is a little busy at the moment assisting the San Francisco 49ers’ quest to reach the Super Bowl. As soon as the 49ers’ season ends, Drevno will report to work at USC. And while offensive line coaches rarely move the needle of the average football fan, make no mistake Drevno is a huge get for the Trojans.

And not as surprising as originally thought upon word leaking he was leaving Jim Harbaugh, with whom he’s spent the past 10 years, and the NFL in a lateral move to USC.

But more on that in a bit.

If you are a USC fan, Drevno is worth your attention. If you want to know who is most responsible for the running juggernaut Stanford developed into under Harbaugh, well, Drevno deserves as much credit as anyone.

Same thing with the 49ers, who, for all the electricity of quarterback Colin Kaepernick, are first and foremost a physical running team operating behind one of the best offensive lines in the NFL.

Much like Stanford did under Harbaugh and now with David Shaw.

“Tim Drevno is the one common factor in those stops,” Sarkisian said. “He’s the architect behind those lines and their physicality and the way they run the football.”

And one USC hopes to replicate in Los Angeles.

“That’s something this football program will be built on,” Sarkisian said. “Our ability to run the football in a physical fashion.”

It begs an obvious question, of course.

Why would Drevno leave the Super Bowl-caliber 49ers and a boss he’s worked with for more than a decade for USC?

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As you might have guessed, there is a back story — much to USC’s good fortune.

Turns out Drevno and Sarkisian share roots in Torrance, Sarkisian attending West Torrance High and Drevno from South Torrance. They were a couple of years apart, but as their coaching careers unfolded they developed a friendship.

And as friends are prone to do sometimes, they shared dreams. One of which was the possibility of reuniting in Los Angeles on the same USC coaching staff.

So, while some were taken aback by Drevno’s abrupt decision to leave the NFL for USC, the reality is this was a long time in the making.

“This didn’t just happen overnight,” Sarkisian said. “This has been mutual friendships, and different talks along the way.

“Tim growing up in Southern California, he knows the power of USC. And understands the rich history and tradition of the offensive line play at USC and the opportunity to come here and be the offensive line coach, I don’t know if it’s his dream job but it’s one of those jobs that you think, if this job could ever become a possibility for me with the right people, that I’d jump at it. And he obviously did.”

In fact, as soon as Sarkisian took the USC job, the two friends were calling each other expressing interest in teaming up.

“When this job came about, it was almost simultaneous I was trying to reach Tim and he was trying to reach me,” Sarkisian said.

For USC, it was a slam-dunk hire.

“We wanted to make sure that hire was an impact hire for our current team but also for the recruiting aspect of it,” Sarkisian said. “To know you can come here and play for an NFL offensive line coach and done it at the highest level.”